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.png?width=1280&auto=webp&quality=80&format=jpg&disable=upscale "The protagonist of Mindseye uses his eye to scan an artifact")
Image via Build a Rocket Boy
Build A Rocket Boy, the developer behind Mindseye, reportedly installed surveillance software on employees’ PCs without their knowledge.
This is according to a report by GamesIndustry.Biz. The publication says it saw Slack messages between studio workers, who discovered that management had reportedly installed monitoring software called Teramind on their machines. Staffers found out in January after noticing their hardware was slower than usual, which impacted the performance of game development tools like Maya.
Then, Build A Rocket Boy management reportedly admitted to installing the software, but only after the fact. Afterward, the company asked staff to sign an updated IT privacy policy.
GamesIndustry.Biz, alongside Insider Gaming, reports having seen an impromptu all-hands video call that took place in the last week of January. In it, co-CEO Mark Gerhard reportedly described Teramind as “enhanced cybersecurity software,” and said that while management trusts most of its staff, “it’s the one percent that is the problem.”
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Gerhard reportedly said that Build A Rocket Boy hoped to remove the tech “within three months,” with the caveat that this was “directly linked to Mindseye’s success.”
The latter refers to claims from co-CEO Leslie Benzies—who is the former president of Rockstar North—that Mindseye’s critical reception and low sales had been partially due to “saboteurs” within the company. “I find it disgusting that anyone could sit amongst us, behave like this and continue to work here,” Benzies reportedly said during an internal meeting seen by BBC Newsbeat.
It’s one of many claims and actions in a long saga that included layoffs, as well as allegations of mandated crunch and mismanagement. In early October, a group of almost 100 former and current Build A Rocket Boy developers published an open letter, in which they claimed that mismanagement purportedly led to the “disastrous handling of redundancies” and “unbearable levels of overtime.”
Mindseye studio reportedly said a company committed “criminal activity” against it
During the call reviewed by GamesIndustry.Biz, Gerhard reportedly claimed, without providing evidence, that “a very Big American company” had spent over €1 million in 2025 ($1.1 million), “committing criminal activity against Build A Rocket Boy.”
According to the report, Gerhard claimed the sum took the form of paying UK influencer agency Ritual Network, as well as three unnamed journalists and a few Build A Rocket Boy employees, to damage the company. All of these parties, Gerhard reportedly said, were set to receive in-person criminal complaints “shortly.”
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In a statement provided to GamesIndustry.Biz, a Build A Rocket Boy spokesperson said the following: “Sadly, we do have evidence that there has been a coordinated campaign to purposefully and maliciously damage Build A Rocket Boy’s reputation and undermine confidence in Mindseye. We are working with our legal team and taking steps to address this.”
The latter follows a claim by Gerhard on the Mindseye Discord server back in May 2025, in which he suggested the game’s negative reaction had been paid for in a “concerted effort” against the studio ahead of the game’s release (thanks, Eurogamer).
In another statement sent to GamesIndustry.Biz, Ritual Network denied the accusations against it by Gerhard, saying that it’s unaware of “any legitimate legal action” and that it has not been “provided with any evidence supporting these claims.”
Currently, Benzies, who recently denied allegations of sexual assault after being named by an unidentified person in the recent Epstein files released by the Justice Department, is on a “well-earned temporary leave to recharge after more than a year of working around the clock,” Gerhard reportedly told employees.
A spokesperson for the studio subsequently confirmed to GamesIndustry.biz that “following the development of the recent update,” Benzies “is simply taking a short, planned break following this intense period of work,” and remains as co-CEO.
A mere week before the launch of Mindseye on June 10, two executives at Build A Rocket Boy parted ways with the studio, announcing their leave on LinkedIn. “There are so many people who have made my time at Build A Rocket Boy memorable and I fear forgetting essential names,” chief legal officer Riley Graebner wrote at the time. “A heartfelt thank you will have to do.”
About the Author
Contributing Editor, News, GameDeveloper.com
Diego Nicolás Argüello is a freelance journalist and critic from Argentina. Video games helped him to learn English, so now he covers them for places like The New York Times, NPR, Rolling Stone, and more. He also runs Into the Spine, a site dedicated to fostering and supporting new writers, and co-hosted Turnabout Breakdown, a podcast about the Ace Attorney series. He’s most likely playing a rhythm game as you read this.
